Cat blogging, negative feedback, and toilets

Apologies to all my regular and irregular readers. My cat blogging has been suffering because of my day job, which is overboard at this point.

In trying to make up a final exam, I ACTUALLY found this question in an online test bank.

Multiple Choice Question

1. Which of the following is most similar to the negative feedback mechanism in human physiology?

A) A car runs out of gas and stops.
B) A teacher marks all the wrong answers on students' exam papers.
C) A toilet tank refills itself after a flush.
D) An automatic door opens as soon as somebody approaches it.
E) A clock ticks on a shelf.

Hint:

A most intelligent cat investigates the printer mystery

Youtubes of cats and printers- there are a so many of these! But these two caught my eye. In most I've watched, the cat goes wild and crazy pouncing on the paper, and usually destruction ensues, with funny results.

But, watch the way this kitty "Smudge" responds. You can almost read Smudge's mind. Instead of mindlessly pouncing, Smudge wants to understand the details of what's going on. Mostly, I think,

"hmmm... where did that paper come from, and how did it get there? Is there any more where that came from? Hmmmm.... is there more at the back of the printer? Is it hidden in the scanner? Why didn't I see it move from the scanner to the printer?"

Sure looks to me like Smudge has been paying a lot of attention to the situation, and KNOWS that the human hides pieces of paper under the scanner lid. A most intelligent cat!

I wanted to see what Pam/werebear at The Way of Cats had written about cat intelligence, as she is a most astute cat observer- I link her blog in the sidebar. This post Are Cats Intelligent? is great- and, this part, tho it talks about mousies as prey, describes the same type of "thinking" cat:

...We see the cat bounding after their prey in the final act of what has been a much longer drama. When we offer the cat a more complete prey experience (...) we see more of what is going on in the cat’s mind. Given more intelligent prey, cats will study the object, find places to view the object, set themselves up to ambush the object, and then complete the action with their pouncing.

So, let's watch Smudge, the cat detective.

Oh, those Silly Maine coons!

This kitty looks like a near twin of Tootsie, my Maine coon. I ran across this wonderful picture at I Can Haz Cheezburger.


I was intrigued, so I left a comment asking about the kitty. The person who posted the picture (and the caption) was kind enough to reply. Yes, she IS a Maine coon.

Human (FuzzyWuzzywasabear) said:

"She's my father's Maine Coon. She loves crawling inside her pretzel jar and watching the world. I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet, but she also does backwards summersaults to catch her dangle toy."

Direct link (with comments) is here.

And, it's fun to track the various captions over at "I can haz cheezburger". I found the photo when it was first put up (~2 days ago), and within an hour or so there were 6 captions. Last time I looked, this photo had 98 captions, and you can see them all here.

Mine was one of the first, and reflects what Tootsie would have been thinking (I think), but ebry cats iz diffrnt. ;) This is the link.

Polydactyl Maine coons- poly paws celebration

This is Feets, Booglum's Maine coon polydactyl rescue cat:

Direct link is here

Booglum says: "Here is the baby Maine Coon Kitty, Feets, and his big huge polydactyl paws! Aww, such a baby. He is our snowstorm rescue baby. :)" I've featured Feets before, here. Love that kitty, who, btw, is somehow entered by breed as a "Mancoon" at the vets! So I've been told ;)

Here's Tootsie, my Maine coon polydactyl rescue cat (click on photo for a larger image)- also on flickr with Creative Commons License.


Click on the label below, "polydactyl", for more polydactyl cats.

More Boogie Woogie education from darkblack- and the cutest dancing kitty ever

Boogie Woogie Basics

This is the second installment in 'darkblack educates VG about boogie woogie'. The first installment is here.

So, I had found another great kitteh YouTube, of a British Shorthair cat (kitten), with nice musical accompaniment.



And, the music sounded really familiar. It took me back to an email chat that darkblack and I had once upon a time, when I was first trying to learn my way around boogie woogie, when I first found this YouTube:


VG:

I have another music question for you darkblack-- boogie woogie reprise! Found a sweet kitty vid I am planning on using. THEN, got to listening to the music. Rang some memory bells from a discussion we had a long time ago about boogie, and then about Emerson and OP (Oscar Peterson).

I've listened multiple times to music on two YouTubes, but just can't make the call- is this the same "tune" in the kitty and Emerson/OP YouTubes? My guess is yes, but not a musician with the "ear".

darkblack responds:

No, it's not the same tune - but it is the same style (boogie-woogie 1-4-5 in musician's lingo) played in two different keys. (F in the kitteh video, and G in the Emerson/Oscar duet).

There are a lot of tunes and interpretations in this style...the right hand usually determines the melody.

VG:

wow db, I KNEW you had the ear. At least I got it right that the tunes were "somewhat similar" in style. The "melody" part totally escaped me- listening again to the two vids- yes, I can hear the melody in the kitty vid music, but I absolutely cannot hear it/ find it in the Emerson and OP versions.

darkblack said:

This contrast in style that you have presented us brings up an interesting point, VG...Whether such a natural rhythm can be duplicated by a machine. A cursory listen to the 'kitteh' soundtrack indicates to me that it is a playback of a MIDI file , the 21st century equivalent of a player piano.

When we contrast that with the live performance, right away one might hear a difference. Whether this is one of quality or some other state is relative to the listener, of course.

VG:

Would you explain more about how MIDI is used? How it works?

darkblack said:

Essentially, a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) file is a series of codes that when entered into a playback device (synthesizer, for example) triggers sound samples sequentially within a song arrangement according to time code - 'music without musicians', if you will.

Take a closed 'high-hat' sample from a drumkit, as an example - Music programmers enter performance data that will make the sample of such a high-hat play at a predetermined rate and pattern, with subtle or dramatic variances in pitch and amplitude that are infinitely repeatable. This can then be expanded to other elements of drumkit, and other instruments as well.

VG:

I am really interested to know, though, why you thought that the kitty vid soundtrack was a MIDI production. Was it 'too perfect' or lacking in nuance? Or?

darkblack said:

The giveaway for me in hearing a performance is the similarity of samples. The easiest ones to spot are short and repetitious - drums and horn shots - but for me it is indeed the (good word, btw) nuance of a sample that is the tell when repeated.

In live performance, no note is truly the same...Infinite and intangible data such as vibrato, attack, pitch variance and timing are different, even with great and good players alike. This doesn't mar a performance, but rather enhances it due to the sonic interaction created. Some call it swing.

As to questions of 'too perfect' or lack of nuance, while that certainly could be said of MIDI playbacks in the '80's and 90's with the tech limits of that time, the quality of samples and technology available to the user today allows for far much more imagination...The ability to mimic a human performance is quite possible, given appropriate motivation and resources.

VG:

Now back to my very first question, where I asked you if it was the same "tune". Upon reflection, I wondered if there was a "good reason" I couldn't pick out the "melody" in the Emerson/OP video, especially in the Ocsar Peterson part- OP was "way out there" (?!) in terms of the "melody".

But, then again, isn't that part of "great jazz"? That the "melody" is danced around, played around, but only overtly played/ stated one or two times, with the dancing around, playing around, being the mastery?

darkblack said:

The deconstruction of melody inherent to a jazz performance could be indeed a topic for multiple posts, but let us see if we can get to the heart of the concept here. In the history of Jazz and improvisational music, recontextualizing melodic content within a shifting harmonic landscape is crucial, and the quality of one's 'on-the-fly' melodic reinterpretation separates the pros from the tyros.

The best examples, of course, are with pictures and sound, and thus I give you a master of the idiom, John Coltrane, with quartet playing My Favorite Things.

darkblack adds:

Note how the 'head' of the tune (the predominant melody over the chord changes) is never played the same way twice in this version. Also, how effortlessly McCoy Tyner and Eric Dolphy manipulate the same material within the performance.

VG: Wow. Thank you, darkblack for having the ear, and the patience to educate me further.

Sometime I'll tell you about my Weather Report airplane experience. ;)

Maine coon music- my two favorite YouTubes

I have a fondness for YouTubes with great music. And, then, there's my Maine coon thing. ;)


More about Fletcher Henderson here: Feline Follies- with the exceptional Fletcher Henderson



And, in case you're wondering the music above is here also:


More information here, and here.

Maine coon belly fluff

I'm back as of 15 minutes ago! A storm came through here, and I and many others haven't had power for 2 days- fallen trees took out power lines, and blocked roads.

So, I'm just gonna do the easy thing, and show you some Maine coon belly fluff. Tootsie my Maine coon loves to have her belly rubbed. Is this a Maine coon thing?


Direct link is here
Pictures of Cats.org

Cats in movies- Breakfast at Tiffany's

Audrey Hepburn. Cat. And some guy who can't get the downstairs door open.

If you've never seen "Breakfast at Tiffany's"... it's a great movie, and the cat is real as well as metaphoric. Here's a photo tidbit from the denouement-


Photo is from Karin at Flickr (CCL)


Above is a 3 minute snippet from the first 10 minutes, which comes from Breakfast at Tiffany's(1961), part 1/14 Follow the part 1/14 link, and you can watch the movie from start to finish, thanks to a dedicated YouTuber.

And, here's the important part, in text-

Quote (via imdb, with a few corrections):
Holly Golightly: Sure, sure, he's okay. Aren't you, cat? Poor old cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name! Well I haven't got the right to give him one. We don't belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river. I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

Pictures of Cats.org

Click on the label "cats in movies" for more "cats in movies"

Cat and baby prairie dog- more interspecies love

Cat and baby prairie dog- more interspecies love- to add to cats and dogs, cats and horses, cats and bunnies...



Human says: 猫と遊びたいプレーリードッグベビー。
やんちゃ盛り。
でも、猫の方は少しうっとおしそうな感じ。
眼で訴えてます。「・・・勘弁してくれよ・・・。」

Which roughly translates via online translation as:
プレーリードッグベビー that wants to play with a/the cat.
<ちゃheap that not And> the impossibility that analyze an/the attention: a part.
However, one of the cat be the feeling that seems as うっa little.
I am appealing with the eye a/the subject. ' Forgive it/. '

Hmmm.... well, online translation does have its shortcomings...

Click on label "interspecies" for the cat and etc. YTs. Hard to pick a favorite, but the cat and the bunny is pretty sweet. And, of course King Louie the Maine coon and Miss Sassafrass the miniature Schnauzer. King Louie... gone to kitty heaven now. Heart breaker, that. He's Tootsie's godfather.

Another sweet British Shorthair kitty, with a twist

I just found another great YouTube of yet another sweet British Shorthair kitten en famille. But, had no sound, so read on (below) before you click.



Some of my most favorite YouTubes are those that have a great musical accompaniament. And, the kitty YouTube called out for this. And, YES, you can open two YouTubes at the same time. So, my suggestion, click on the one below and let it run until ~ the 1:03 mark, and THEN open the kitty YouTube. Trust me ;). The "mashup" is fun.



Among the classical music choices above, I'd vote for Waltz of the Flowers or The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Or maybe Hoedown.

Otto plays carrot fetch

Otto the rescue cat has a huge YouTube fan club. He's Mr. Personality.


Direct link is here

Otto can also be seen doing another great trick here, with more about Otto's story- Otto the rescue cat- with a huge YouTube fan club
Pictures of Cats.org

British Shorthair- the cutest kitty ever?

Here's another great YT of joe joe, the British Shorthair kitty.


Direct link is here

Yes, I've posted this one (below) before, with a lot more information (British Shorthair cats- a wonderful YouTube), but I thought it would be fun to have them together.
Direct link is here

Is this the cutest kitty ever?

More about the British Shorthair breed- This page describes the history of the British Shorthair, AND has great pictures from the incomparable Helmi Flick. This page has more. And this page I found particularly intriguing, because it weaves together the history of a nation and the history of a cat breed.

Cat comes home after 2 years, thanks to microchip

Ozzie the bengal cat was reunited with his family, after 2 years, thanks to a cat microchip.

I read this story earlier this year, and thought of it again after reading about cat microchips over at Michael's place.

Selected quotes below are from this newpaper story
Cat Ozzie's back from Millport after two years

"A MISSING moggie has been reunited with its Bearsden owners — after turning up in Millport TWO YEARS after it vanished. Karen Ratcliffe was stunned when she was told her beloved pet had been found safe and well, 38 miles away in the seaside town last week."

Here's the map of the 38 miles- A is Bearsden, B is Millport:

"She has no idea how the Bengal tabby managed to cross the waves to the Isle of Cumbrae — but she and her family are delighted to welcome him home. Ozzie was handed into North Ayrshire Cats Protection by a woman who had noticed that he was a stray and they found that he had a microchip which enabled them to trace his original owner.

"Karen said: "I got Ozzie and his sister, Ellie, after my husband died to comfort the children a little bit. He was the dominant male so he'd often go out and one day he just never came home.

"The children were devastated when he went missing, they made laminated posters and put them all over the area. We phoned the local police station and we were all out looking for him, checking garages and rattling cans of food.

"Getting a call two years later to say he'd been found was incredible, I couldn't believe it. We had all given up hope of finding him safe and well."

A volunteer at North Ayrshire Cats Protection, said: "We got a real shock when we discovered that Ozzie came from Bearsden. It wasn't so much the distance but the fact that he had to cross the water. It was great to be able to return him to his rightful owner. The vast majority of cats aren't microchipped so they just have to be re-homed, this shows how effective the chip is in returning lost cats."

When I adopted Tootsie from a rescue center, she already had an implanted microchip. She's a totally indoor cat, and apparently has always been such, but the rescue center has cats "microchipped" as a matter of policy. Tootsie is usually pretty easy to locate. My keys, tho, well that's a different matter altogether!

darkblack educates VG about boogie woogie

Boogie Woogie Basics

My friend darkblack has many gifts, among them the willingness and more so the ability to educate me about music.

My cat blogging (started in a moment of therapeutic madness as an escape from political madness) has led me into some musical byways, because I love kitteh vids with great music. One great kitteh YT had music by Meade Lux Lewis: Some VERY silly cats, and great jazz piano And, one thing led to another...

I found some great YT film footage of Meade Lux Lewis playing Boogie Woogie.


And then I found a YT of Liberace playing pretty much the same "tune" in 1969, well only sorta.


The differences between the two YTs were quite striking in just about every way. I am no musician, and I wanted to get darkblack's take on this. I sent darkblack the YT links, including the idea "compare and contrast". I also mentioned my take - that Liberace didn't "GET" boogie woogie, imho.

And, thus, darkblack educated me. I would like to pass this education along.

About darkblack: a Canadian, but/and a keen observer of US politics with a gift for "graphic" art! His blog is subtitled "Steaks from sacred cows, cheap". Can't count the number of times I or others have said "brilliant, db!" in the comments. Nonetheless, he identifies himself as a musician. And, he's earned his chops - music conservatory training, and uh, branching out from there- Prior to his 'retirement' a decade ago, he had amassed on the order of almost 2000 gigs in myriad styles, from concert stages to restaurants.

darkblack said:

Contrast between Lux and Lee, eh? One of environmental influences, to start.

Notice how tight and precise Lewis' left hand bass stays throughout, and the rhythm never wavers. Jerry Lee Lewis for one took a big bite off that, conceptually - and you can hear a lot of Lux (and 'stride' players such as Willie 'The Lion' Smith and James P. Johnson) within Oscar Peterson's vast stylistic ouevre.

Liberace comes from a classical background, but he didn't have the interpretive chops necessary to really excel in that field so he went for the showmanship instead.

He just wasn't a 'swinger' in the musical sense - rather, a man of his times and environment, raised on classical music that can impart a certain rigidity to one's character, allowing them to develop the discipline needed to perform in the style.

When he plays in that '69 clip, the first thing I notice is that the loudness pedal is down full, which 'washes out' the bass articulation needed to really get boogie woogie across. It's a more physical style of playing, but it's not dependent on physical strength, necessarily...

Technical musicians often struggle with the right 'feeling' in their performance - for some, trying to evoke (or invoke) spirits gone by, others for a level and maintenance of intensity. It's not only a cerebral medium after all, but a physical as well...sound and motion.

Here's two of the masters, Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson, doing just that.

And Here's a clip of Dick Hyman from his Century Of Jazz Piano video filmed in 1999.... you can hear the coordinated attack of left and right hand that he explains as a necessity for the style. Key to a successful boogie.

darkblack: Valley Girl, let Dr. John run the voodoo down to us with Mac's Boogie, recorded in 1986 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival and available through Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Cats and Politics

Hi guys, it's me Michael, the budding anarchist and cat lover, cat fancier. You know I don't understand how people decided on the phrase, "Cat Fancy" to mean the cat show, cat breeding world. That said, I can't think of a good alternative! But I can understand the mainly young people in the video below who want to make their voice heard, to shout out about the bl**dy politicians who muck up our lives in league with ever more reckless masters of the universe, the people who run big business. And I was pleased to be there to show my support. Cats and politics do go together. What affects us affects our cat companions and the politicians tend to have a negative impact on our lives.

The demo happened opposite the Bank of England and one of the chants was a rhythmical, "Jump, Jump". This was directed at some employees of the bank who were on a large balcony overlooking the demonstrators.

The video echoes of the 1960s to me, although that wasn't intended originally. And it is quite sinister. This is because it was a bit sinister. Particularly the damn police who falsely imprisoned all 4,000 of us for several hours against the law. Britain has become a police state.

Siamese kitten and Ragdoll kitten-- compare and contrast

In an earlier post, I featured a charming chicken-stealing kitty: Little tiny Brazilian cat steals chicken I said in the comments that I thought it was a Siamese kitten. Nope. If a purebred, most likely a Ragdoll kitten, as Michael pointed out in added comments. So, I did some research on YouTube.

This is a Siamese kitten, tho I can't refine the call to say whether it is of "traditional" or "modern" type.

Direct link is here

Human says: "While my older siamese cat (Autumn) is enjoying some catnip, my five month old siamese kitten (Phoebe) challenges her for a whiff of it. View to see who wins!"

And this is a Ragdoll kitten.

Direct link is here

Oh Lady Luck, Singing in the Bathtub- 1929 reprise

I have certainly delved into some unexpected YouTube territory, thanks to my Kitteh Blog. Music stuff. And, as I said in my header, "and occasionally some other stuff, maybe". This would be that.

And, this is from 1929. Yanno, 1929. Like, history repeats itself.


I couldn't find the lyrics of the opening song, by means of ample use of teh google, so I listened hard, and wrote them out as best I could.

Oh my calamity
Don’t bother me
Keep right on your way,
Whatever it takes
To make lucky breaks
Is what I’m needing today

Oh that’s not the place of my complaint
I hereby call upon my Patron Saint

Oh Lady Luck,
I’ve got you on my mind
So won’t you won’t please to kind me

Oh Lady Luck,
Don’t give my hopes a rest
And I’ll be happy as can be

Just stick around with me for a while
Show me your golden smile

Oh, Lady Luck
You know at times you could
So won’t you please be good to me?

Singing in the Bathtub- the follow up dancing thingy in the YouTube, with the women dressed in ballet tutus and dice accessories, and tap dancing frantically is to the tune of "Singing in the Bathtub". Here's a link to a YT with the words, also from 1929. "Everybody's happy, singing in the tub."



Here is a brilliant fantasy take via an inspired YouTuber, featuring a Keith Olbermann on Countdown, to the tune of "Singing in the Bathtub".



Huge H/T to Grover Norquist, a man before and after his time. In case you've somehow missed the pertinent quote and sentiment, from here: Norquist is famous for his widely quoted comment that he wants to shrink government:

"down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Yep, we're all dancing around like ballerinas, tap dancing frantically and wearing our dice accessories. As depicted in the first YouTube. I do wonder what Grover Norquist would say about ballerina tutus...

Two sweet sleepy kittens

Two sweet sleepy kittens-- trying so hard not to fall asleep


Direct link is here


Direct link is here

Maine coon snoring, and paw dancing in his dreams

Yes, this Maine coon snores. But what makes him special (compared with all of the other "cat snoring" YouTubes I've watched) is the way his paws dance along.


Direct link is here

Human says: "This is Bubba a 22 pound Maine Coon Cat. He started snoring about 4 years ago and no one believes us until they see it for themselves. As you can see his markings are very unique."

I've posted before another YouTube of a cat snoring Oska the British Shorthair Cat, snoring madly. Bubba the Maine coon doesn't quite have the same vocal range as Oska, but he makes up for it with some interesting paw and whisker additions.

Cats watching fish- two views

Cats watching fishies- two views

This is a painterly view:

White Cats Watching Goldfish - Arthur Heyer (1872 - 1931)

Michael at PoC has another Arthur Heyer painting, with more about the cats (Persians, I think he would say) and the artist here.

This is what cats actually do:

Direct link is here

Human says: Viljo is so excited about aquarium that he cannot stop staring at it.

Viljo is a Norwegian forest cat in Finland. He is father to two of my favorite YouTube cats, brothers Vinski and Ukko. More YouTubes of Vinski and Ukko here. And, here are Viljo and Ukko meeting - ah, very sweet:


Direct link is here

More about the Norwegian forest cat here and here.